Direct manipulation gestures

ABSTRACT

The present disclosure describes various techniques that may be implemented to execute and/or interpret manipulation gestures performed by a user on a multipoint touch input interface of a computing device. An example method includes receiving a multipoint touch gesture at a multipoint touch input interface of a computing device, wherein the multipoint touch gesture comprises a gesture that is performed with multiple touches on the multipoint touch input interface, and resolving the multipoint touch gesture into a command. The example method further includes determining at least one physical simulation effect to associate with the resolved multipoint touch gesture, and rendering a unified feedback output action in a graphical user interface of the computing device by executing the command, wherein the unified feedback output action includes at least a graphical output action incorporated with the at least one physical simulation effect in the graphical user interface.

This application claims the benefit of U.S. Provisional Application No.61/236,634, filed Aug. 25, 2009, the entire content of which isincorporated herein by reference.

TECHNICAL FIELD

The present disclosure relates manipulation gestures performed by a useron a multipoint touch input interface of a computing device.

BACKGROUND

With the proliferation of computing devices and software programs toview, manipulate and manage information presented via a graphical userinterface, there has been an increased desire to provide a user withmore intuitive and realistic ways of interaction. For instance, withregard to entering commands and as well for providing feedback on theobjects acted on, as the entered commands are carried out to completion.The graphical user interface objects displayed and manipulated mayinclude such images as icons, text, menus, windows and digitalphotographs, for example. Touch sensitive devices have been developed toreceive touch-based gestures as user input to computer systems, asimplemented in touch screen or touchpad input devices.

SUMMARY

The present disclosure describes various techniques that may beimplemented to execute and/or interpret manipulation gestures performedby a user on a multipoint touch input interface of a computing device.To enhance the user experience, user feedback based on physicalsimulation related one or more gestures is incorporated with thecustomary graphical output for presentation in a manner that may beintuitive and realistic to the user.

In one example, a method comprises the following: receiving a multipointtouch gesture at a multipoint touch input interface of a computingdevice, wherein the multipoint touch gesture comprises a gesture that isperformed with multiple touches on the multipoint touch input interface;resolving the multipoint touch gesture into a command; determining atleast one physical simulation effect to associate with the resolvedmultipoint touch gesture; and rendering a unified feedback output actionin a graphical user interface of the computing device by executing thecommand, wherein the unified feedback output action includes at least agraphical output action incorporated with the at least one physicalsimulation effect in the graphical user interface.

In one example, a computer-readable storage medium comprisesinstructions that, when executed, cause one or more processors of acomputing device to: receive a multipoint touch gesture at a multipointtouch input interface of the computing device, wherein the multipointtouch gesture comprises a gesture that is performed with multipletouches on the multipoint touch input interface; resolve the multipointtouch gesture into a command; determine at least one physical simulationeffect to associate with the resolved multipoint touch gesture; andrender a unified feedback output action in a graphical user interface ofthe computing device by executing the command, wherein the unifiedfeedback output action includes at least a graphical output actionincorporated with the at least one physical simulation effect in thegraphical user interface.

In one example, a computing device comprises a multipoint touch inputinterface, a processor, a gesture resolution module, and a physicalsimulation module. The multipoint touch input interface is configured toreceive a multipoint touch gesture, wherein the multipoint touch gesturecomprises a gesture that is performed with multiple touches on themultipoint touch input interface. The gesture resolution module isimplemented by the processor to resolve the received multipoint touchgesture. The physical simulation module is implemented by the processorto determine at least one physical simulation effect to associate withthe resolved multipoint touch gesture. The computing device furthercomprises means for rendering unified feedback output action in agraphical user interface of the computing device, wherein the unifiedfeedback action includes at least a graphical output action incorporatedwith the associated at least one physical simulation effect in thegraphical user interface.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

Embodiments are illustrated by way of example only and not limitation,with reference to the following drawings in which like referencenumerals indicate corresponding or similar elements, and in which:

FIG. 1 is an exemplary block diagram illustrating a computing deviceenabled for multipoint touch input capability in accordance with oneembodiment;

FIG. 2 is a flowchart illustrating an exemplary sequence of operationsbased on the block diagram elements depicted in FIG. 1;

FIGS. 3 a-b illustrate an exemplary magnetic toss gesture;

FIGS. 4 a-b illustrate an exemplary scrunch gesture;

FIGS. 5 a-b illustrate an exemplary shove gesture;

FIGS. 6 a-b illustrate an exemplary pile fan-out gesture;

FIGS. 7 a-b illustrate an exemplary pile to grid gesture;

FIGS. 8 a-b illustrate an exemplary photo crop gesture; and

FIGS. 9 a-b illustrate an exemplary photo crop adjustment gesture.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

There continues to be a trend in the field of human-computer interactionto take advantage of the fact that humans respond more favourably toenvironments that mimic reality as closely as possible. Accordingly, incarrying out a gesture-initiated command by a user at a user interfaceof a computing system, feedback may be provided to a user in a moreintuitive and realistic manner. The user experience will be muchenhanced and more positive to the extent that a user interface is moreintuitive, and the feedback that it provides to the user is richer, morerealistic and more intuitive.

Referring to FIG. 1, components of the computing device 100 areillustrated in greater detail. The computing device 100 may be a laptopcomputer, a desktop computer, a handheld computer or other datacomputing device.

The computing device 100 includes a microprocessor 138 which controlsgeneral operation of the computing device 100. The microprocessor 138also interacts with additional device subsystems such as a display 122,a flash memory 124, a random access memory (RAM) 126, auxiliaryinput/output (I/O) subsystems 128, a serial port 130, a keyboard 132, aspeaker 134, a microphone 136, and a short-range communicationssubsystem 140 such as Bluetooth™ for example. Operating system softwareused by the microprocessor 138 may be stored in a persistent store ofmemory such as the flash memory 124, which may alternatively be aread-only memory (ROM) or similar storage element (not shown). Thoseskilled in the art will appreciate that the operating system, specificdevice applications, or parts thereof, may be temporarily loaded into avolatile store of memory such as RAM 126.

The microprocessor 138, in addition to its operating system functions,typically enables execution of software applications on the computingdevice 100. A predetermined set of applications, which control basicdevice operations, may be installed on the computing device 100 duringits manufacture. Applications may also be loaded onto the computingdevice 100 through an auxiliary I/O subsystem 128 or serial port 130 andinstalled by a user in RAM 126, or the in flash memory-type persistentstore 124, for execution by the microprocessor 138. Such flexibility inapplication installation increases the functionality of the computingdevice 100 and may provide enhanced on-device features.

The display screen 122 is used to visually present an application'sgraphical user interface (GUI) to the user. The user can manipulateapplication data by modifying information on the GUI using an inputdevice such as the keyboard 132 for example. Depending on the type ofcomputing device 100, the user may be provided with other types of inputdevices, such as, for example, a scroll wheel, trackball, or light pen.

The display screen 122 of computing device 100 may also be configured asa multipoint touch input interface by incorporating touch-sensing meansbased on sensing technologies into display screen 122. The sensingtechnologies may be capacitive sensing, resistive sensing, surfaceacoustic wave sensing, pressure sensing, optical sensing, and the like.The touch sensing means may be multipoint touch sensing means, capableof distinguishing multiple touches that occur at the same time.

User interface commands or instructions, performed by way of multipointgestures, directly performed by a user at display screen 122 ofcomputing device 100 for example, are gestures that can be performedwith multiple points. That is, the gesture is performed with coordinatedmultiple touches from multiple fingers, fingers, palms and/or side ofthe hand, a finger and a stylus, or any combination thereof. Themultipoint gesture may be dynamic, involving motion. The touch sensingmeans reports the touches to the processor 138, which in conjunctionwith gesture resolution module 190, interprets or resolves the touchesbased on its programming. Processor 138 of computing device 100 may beconfigured to immediately recognize an in-progress gesture so that anaction associated with the gestures can be implemented simultaneouslywith the gesture.

For instance, in carrying out a user interface command comprising thepile fan-out gesture or the scrunch gesture (which are described in moredetail below) the objects selected and acted on by the gesture moveimmediately and simultaneously along with the finger motion. During suchan operation, the processor 138 of computing device recognizes themultipoint touch input as a multipoint gesture, and after resolution ofthe multipoint gesture into a command or instruction, in conjunctionwith gesture resolution module 190, determines what output action shouldbe performed based, at least partly, on physical simulation module 192,and renders the appropriate graphical output on the display screen 122.

Touchpad 120 may alternately, or additionally with display screen 122described above, comprise the multipoint touch input interface of thecomputing device 100. Here, touchpad 120 may include similar touchsensing means as described above for display screen 122 to receive inputfrom a user's multipoint touch for processing at processor 138.

The multipoint touch gesture input applied to display screen 122 ortouchpad 120 may comprise one or more successive single gestures ormultiple gestures that occur simultaneously. Each of the gesturesgenerally may have a particular sequence, motion, or orientationassociated therewith, such as, but not limited to, spreading the fingersapart or closing the fingers together, rotating the fingers, translatingthe fingers. Additional gesture motions may be performed similarly ondisplay screen 122 or touchpad 120 using the flat edge of a user's palmor side of the hand, in lieu of or in addition to, the fingers.

Gesture resolution module 190 interprets or resolves the user touchesreported to processor 138 by the touch sensing means of display screen122 and/or touchpad 120. The display screen 122 and/or touchpad 120receives the gesture input, and after resolution of the gesture bygesture resolution module 190, the processor 138 executes commands orinstructions to render output actions in response to respectivegestures. The output actions rendered may include, but are not limitedto, graphical output actions such as moving or changing the spatialrelation among the icons or objects displayed on the GUI of displayscreen 122.

Gesture resolution module 190 may be part of the operating system ofcomputing device 100, or a separate application, implemented in softwareand/or firmware instructions. Gesture resolution module 190 generallyincludes a set of instructions that recognizes the occurrence of themultipoint touch gesture and in conjunction with processor 138,interprets or resolves the gesture. The gestures may be resolved, forexample, into commands or instructions for performing actions onapplications stored in memory, such as in, but not limited to, RAM 128or flash memory 124 of computing device 100, modifying objects shown asicons on the display screen 122, expanding piled documents displayed ona GUI for better viewing, or collating a pile of documents scatteredover the GUI of display screen 122 into a single pile or folder.

As the multipoint touch gesture command is performed, modificationssimultaneously occur to the objects located underneath the gesture. Forexample, during the pile fan-out, the user's fingers may move across thedisplay screen 122 in order to cause the objects shown thereon to fanout or spread out during the spreading. Likewise, during a scrunchgesture, the user's fingers may close together in order to gather theobjects shown on display screen 122 during the closing of the user'sfingers. During this operation, the computing system 100 recognizes theuser input as a pile fan-out or a scrunch gesture respectively,determines what action should be taken, and outputs control data to thedisplay screen device 122.

Physical simulation module 192, once the gesture is resolved into acommand or instruction, may optionally be used to determine anappropriate physical effect to associate with the resolved gesture.Physical simulation module 192 may be part of the operating system ofcomputing device 100, or a separate application, implemented in softwareand/or firmware instructions. Physical simulation module 192 generallyincludes a set of instructions that, in conjunction with processor 138,and according to a set of pre-determined rules, optionally associates anappropriate physical effect with a given multipoint gesture orcombination of gestures. Once the physical effect is associated with theresolved gesture, the command or instruction being carried out isrendered, incorporated with the physical effect, in the GUI, therebyproviding a unified and intuitive feedback output action.

A physical effect that may be applied by physical simulation module 192may include a magnetic force, a friction or dampening force, acentrifugal force, a speed, acceleration, a vibration force, mass,weight, brightened or dimmed levels of light, or audio. For example, anobject being dropped and in free fall may have gravitationalacceleration motion applied by simulating that physical effect. Asubject item being moved towards, or into, a target item may have africtional forces simulated, to counteract the motion and provide aphysical effect associated with being pushed along a surface towards thetarget item. A subject item entering into the proximity of anothertarget or intermediary item may have a magnetic force simulated, eitherattraction or repulsion.

Spatial attributes of the user interface subject or target items, suchas size, weight, mass or location, may be taken into account insimulating the physical effects. A user action may performed to have asubject item, such as a file icon, follow a curved path towards a targetitem, rather than a linear path, in which case a centrifugal force witha frictional force may be applied to influence the subject item'sprogress towards the target item. Simulating such physical effects,associating and incorporating them into the customary graphical outputof the command being performed such as showing a selected file iconbeing moved towards a file folder across the display screen 120, forinstance, contribute to an enhanced level of intuitive feedbackperceived by a user, as users are inherently and intuitively familiarwith such realistic physical effects. Relationships among the physicalvariables inherent in simulating the physical effects are known in themechanical and physical arts, and may be expressed in the appropriateequations used to simulate a given physical effect via physicalsimulation module 192.

Pre-determined rules for determining one or more appropriate physicaleffect(s) for a given gesture may be provided at physical simulationmodule 192 of computing device 100. The set of pre-determined rules usedin physical simulation module 192 to determine an appropriate physicaleffect may comprise, for example, applying a friction force whenevermotion of a subject item, such as, but not limited to, a file icon, isselected for movement into, or towards, a target item. More than onephysical effect may be combined, associated, and then applied with thegraphical output action. For instance, more than a single force effectmay be applied. In yet another instance, combining increasing ordecreasing audio levels, for rendering via speaker 134 of computingdevice 100, simultaneously with the force effects and the graphicaloutput action, to create the unified feedback output action, such thatthe user of computing device 100 may experience an enhanced, realisticfeel associated with the customary graphical output action that isvisually performed on the display screen 122.

The computing device 100 may optionally include a communicationsubsystem 111, which includes a receiver 112, a transmitter 114, andassociated components, such as one or more embedded or internal antennaelements 116 and 118, local oscillators (LOs) 113, and a processingmodule such as a digital signal processor (DSP) 120. The particulardesign of the communication subsystem 111 may depend on thecommunication network in which computing device 100 is intended tooperate.

FIG. 2 is an exemplary sequence of acts for associating a physicalsimulation effect with a multipoint gesture to render a unified,intuitive feedback output action. The process of FIG. 2 may beimplemented by any computing device, such as computing device 100.

The example process of FIG. 2 includes receiving a multipoint touchgesture at a multipoint touch input interface of a computing device,wherein the multipoint touch gesture comprises a gesture that isperformed with multiple touches on the multipoint touch input interface(202). The process further includes resolving the multipoint touchgesture into a command (204), and associating the resolved multipointtouch gesture with at least one physical simulation effect (206). Theprocess further includes rendering a unified feedback output action in agraphical user interface of the computing device by executing thecommand, wherein the unified feedback output action includes at least agraphical output action incorporated with the at least one physicalsimulation effect in the graphical user interface (208).

The acts described in FIG. 2 will now be described further as applied tosome exemplary specific multipoint gesture inputs. In FIG. 2 and allsubsequent figures though FIGS. 9 a-b of the disclosure herein, it willbe understood that the multipoint gesture actions depicted are beingundertaken on a multipoint touch input interface, such as touchpad 120or display screen 122 described above.

FIGS. 3 a and 3 b illustrate an exemplary magnetic toss gesture inaccordance with an embodiment. At FIG. 3 a, a user places, for instance,a first touch at target position 301 associated with a target item, suchas a file folder. A second touch may be applied at subject position 302associated with a subject item, which may be a GUI icon representativeof a file.

At FIG. 3 b, by applying a flicking action 303 by the user's finger atsubject position 302 towards target position 301, the file item atsubject position 302 may be “tossed” into the file folder at targetposition 301. Simulated physical effects suitable for incorporation intothe GUI display of the motion of subject 302 item towards targetposition 301 may include a magnetic force of attraction between thetarget and subject items, the force increasing as the toss actionprogresses towards completion, or optionally a frictional force tocounteract the magnetic attractive force. Suitable audio effects mayalso be simulated to indicate the progress and completion of the toss,for inclusion into a unified GUI display feedback to the user.

FIGS. 4 a and 4 b illustrate an exemplary scrunch gesture in accordancewith an embodiment. At FIG. 4 a, a user's finger touches at positions401 a-e may define a bounded region 403 encompassing a set of subjectitems 402 a-e therein. During the scrunch gesture, the user's fingers401 a-e may close together in order to gather or coalesce the set ofsubject items 401 a-e shown on display screen 122 (not shown) during theclosing of the user's fingers.

At FIG. 4 b, as the multipoint touch scrunch gesture is performed,modifications simultaneously occur to the subject items 402 a-e locatedwithin now-coalesced bounded region 403 of the gesture. During thisoperation, the computing system 100 recognizes the user input as ascrunch gesture, resolves the gesture into a scrunch command, and mayoptionally determine one or more appropriate physical effect(s), such asa frictional force to counteract the movement of subject items 402 a-ecoalescing into a single pile 404, to associate with the resolvedgesture, then outputs the unified feedback action on the display screen122 (not shown). Also contemplated is reversing the actions of thescrunch gesture, to “unscrunch” a single pile into loosely separateitems. For instance, such an “unscrunch” gesture may comprise thereverse order of motions described above for the scrunch gesture, asapplied to a tidied group of objects in FIG. 4 b, which then results inspreading the objects apart to form a FIG. 4 a type configuration.

FIGS. 5 a and 5 b illustrate an exemplary shove gesture in accordancewith an embodiment. At FIG. 5 a, a user's side-of-the-palm defines acontinuous line or region 501. Region 501 may encompass a set of subjectitems 502 a-e at least with regard to a given direction 503 therein.

At FIG. 5 b, during the shove gesture, the user's side of the palmdefining region 501 may move in direction 503 to pile together the setof subject items 502 a-e shown on display screen 122. As the multipointtouch shove gesture is performed, modifications simultaneously occur tothe subject items 502 a-e located along direction 503 of the gesture. Inthis gesture, the side of the palm 501 acts as a physical region thatcollides against the other icons as if they were physical objects. Theresponse to the collision shoves the icons aside with the user's palm.During this operation, the computing system 100 recognizes the userinput as a shove gesture, resolves the gesture into a shove command,optionally determines one or more appropriate physical effect(s), suchas a frictional force to counteract the movement of subject items 502a-e coalescing, to associate with the resolved gesture, then outputs theunified feedback action on the display screen device 122. The collisionsand forces resulting therefrom may be physically simulated.

FIGS. 6 a and 6 b illustrate an exemplary pile fan-out gesture inaccordance with an embodiment. At FIG. 6 a, the user's fingers areplaced on a single pile 601 (not shown) comprised of subject pile items601 a-d. As the two fingers are generally simultaneously dragged alongdirection 604, modifications simultaneously occur to the subject items601 a-d that comprise pile 601, showing separately all of items 601 a-dof the pile 601.

At FIG. 6 b, for example, during the pile fan-out, the computing system100 recognizes the user input as a pile fan-out gesture, resolves thegesture into a pile-fan-out showing separately all of items 601 a-d ofthe pile 601, optionally determines one appropriate physical effect tosimulate, such as a magnetic repulsion or elastic spring force amongsubject items 601 a-d on the line as the pile fan-out progresses, toassociate with the resolved gesture, then outputs the unified feedbackaction on the display screen device 122.

FIGS. 7 a-b illustrate an exemplary pile to grid gesture in accordancewith an embodiment. At FIG. 7 a, a user positions finger touches atgenerally rectangular touch positions 701 a-d encompassing a neat stackor a pile 702 (not shown), pile 702 comprising subject items 702 a-f.The touch positions 701 a-d are respectively moved continuously outwardalong respective, disparate directions 703 a-d. Modificationssimultaneously occur to the subject items 702 a-f of pile 702, wherebythe size of the rectangle thereby defined expands, causing the separatesubject items 702 a-f to ordered for display along a grid. During thisoperation, the computing system 100 recognizes the user input as a pileto grid gesture, resolves the gesture into a pile to grid command,determines one or more appropriate physical effect(s), such as havingthe objects animate into a grid as if there were magnetic forcespropelling them along the grid, to associate with the resolved gesture,then outputs the unified feedback action on the display screen device122.

FIGS. 8 a-b illustrate an exemplary photo crop gesture in accordancewith an embodiment. At FIG. 8 a, a first user finger touches firstposition 801 within photo 802. A second user finger swipes along ahorizontal direction defining a top crop line 803. At FIG. 8 b,additional crop lines, such as left crop line 804, right, or bottom, canbe defined. Releasing the user's first finger from first position 801completes the photo crop operation. During this operation, the computingsystem 100 recognizes the user input as a photo crop gesture, resolvesthe gesture into a photo crop command, determines one or moreappropriate physical effect(s) to simulate, such as having the fingersslice/shear the photo as if it were paper and then the cropped piecefalling downward/outward with gravity, and to associate with theresolved gesture, then outputs the unified feedback action on thedisplay screen device 122. It will be appreciated that the gestureresolution and visual feedback may be more continuous, rather thanprocessed at the end. For instance, in the photo cropping gesturedepicted in FIGS. 8 a-b, a line across the photo may show what a user iscropping, and the line is continuously updated as the user drags afinger to draw the line.

FIGS. 9 a-b illustrate an exemplary photo crop adjustment gesture inaccordance with an embodiment varying from FIGS. 8 a-b. At FIG. 9 a, anycrop line such as horizontal crop line 803, may be dragged alongdirection 901 as long as a user's touch remains at first position 801.The crop adjustment is complete once the touch at first position 801 isterminated by lifting.

At FIG. 9 b, two crop lines, such as 803 and 804, may be simultaneouslyadjusted by dragging from their original intersection point 903 alongdirection 902. Again the adjustment is terminated once the first touchposition 801 is lifted.

The techniques described in this disclosure may be implemented, at leastin part, in hardware, software, firmware, or any combination thereof.For example, various aspects of the described techniques may beimplemented within one or more processors, including one or moremicroprocessors, digital signal processors (DSPs), application specificintegrated circuits (ASICs), field programmable gate arrays (FPGAs), orany other equivalent integrated or discrete logic circuitry, as well asany combinations of such components. The term “processor” or “processingcircuitry” may generally refer to any of the foregoing logic circuitry,alone or in combination with other logic circuitry, or any otherequivalent circuitry. A control unit including hardware may also performone or more of the techniques of this disclosure.

Such hardware, software, and firmware may be implemented within the samedevice or within separate devices to support the various techniquesdescribed in this disclosure. In addition, any of the described units,modules or components may be implemented together or separately asdiscrete but interoperable logic devices. Depiction of differentfeatures as modules or units is intended to highlight differentfunctional aspects and does not necessarily imply that such modules orunits must be realized by separate hardware, firmware, or softwarecomponents. Rather, functionality associated with one or more modules orunits may be performed by separate hardware, firmware, or softwarecomponents, or integrated within common or separate hardware, firmware,or software components.

The techniques described in this disclosure may also be embodied orencoded in a computer-readable medium, such as a computer-readablestorage medium, containing instructions. Instructions embedded orencoded in a computer-readable medium, including a computer-readablestorage medium, may cause one or more programmable processors, or otherprocessors, to implement one or more of the techniques described herein,such as when instructions included or encoded in the computer-readablemedium are executed by the one or more processors. Computer readablestorage media may include random access memory (RAM), read only memory(ROM), programmable read only memory (PROM), erasable programmable readonly memory (EPROM), electronically erasable programmable read onlymemory (EEPROM), flash memory, a hard disk, a compact disc ROM (CD-ROM),a floppy disk, a cassette, magnetic media, optical media, or othercomputer readable media. In some examples, an article of manufacture maycomprise one or more computer-readable storage media.

Although this disclosure has been described with reference to specificexemplary embodiments, varying modifications thereof will be apparent tothose skilled in the art without departing from the scope of thedisclosure as defined by the appended claims.

The invention claimed is:
 1. A method comprising: receiving, by acomputing device, an indication of a multipoint touch gesture that isperformed with multiple touches at a touch interface; determining, bythe computing device, at least one physical simulation effect associatedwith the multipoint touch gesture, wherein the multipoint touch gesturecomprises at least one of an unscrunch gesture, a shove gesture, a pilefan-out gesture, a pile-to-grid gesture, and a crop gesture; andoutputting, by the computing device and for display at a graphical userinterface, a unified feedback output action, wherein the unifiedfeedback output action includes applying the at least one physicalsimulation effect to at least a graphical output action in the graphicaluser interface.
 2. The method of claim 1, wherein the at least onephysical simulation effect accounts for one or more spatial attributesof at least one of a subject item and a target item associated with atleast the graphical output action.
 3. The method of claim 2, whereinrendering the unified feedback output action comprises rendering theunified feedback output action to provide the at least one physicalsimulation effect as the subject item moves towards the target item inthe graphical user interface.
 4. The method of claim 2, wherein the oneor more spatial attributes comprise at least one of a size attribute, aweight attribute, a mass attribute, and a location attribute.
 5. Themethod of claim 1, wherein the at least one physical simulation effectcomprises one or more of a magnetic attraction effect, a magneticrepulsion effect, a friction force effect, a dampening force effect, acentrifugal force effect, an elastic spring force effect, a vibrationforce effect, a speed effect, an acceleration effect, a brightened levelof light effect, and a dimmed level of light effect.
 6. The method ofclaim 5, wherein rendering the unified feedback output action comprisesrendering the unified feedback output action to provide the at least onephysical simulation effect as a subject item enters into a proximity ofa target item in the graphical user interface.
 7. The method of claim 1,further comprising associating the resolved multipoint touch gesturewith multiple physical simulation effects, and wherein rendering theunified feedback output action comprises combining the multiple physicalsimulation effects for incorporation with at least the graphical outputaction.
 8. The method of claim 7, wherein combining the multiplephysical simulation effects comprises combining a force effect with anaudio level effect.
 9. The method of claim 1, wherein receiving themultipoint touch gesture at the touch interface comprises receiving atoss gesture that includes a first touch applied at a target positionassociated with a target item and a second touch applied at a subjectposition associated with a subject item, the toss gesture furtherincluding a movement of the second touch applied at the subject positiontowards the target position, wherein resolving the multipoint touchgesture comprises recognizing the toss gesture, and wherein at least thegraphical output action comprises a movement of the subject itemassociated with the subject position towards the target item associatedwith the target position in the graphical user interface.
 10. The methodof claim 1, wherein receiving the multipoint touch gesture at the touchinterface comprises receiving a scrunch gesture that includes multipletouches at positions that define a first bounded region encompassing aset of associated subject items displayed in the graphical userinterface, the scrunch gesture further including closing of the multipletouches together to define a second bounded region, wherein resolvingthe multipoint touch gesture comprises recognizing the scrunch gesture,and wherein at least the graphical output action comprises coalescingthe set of associated subject items closer together in the graphicaluser interface.
 11. The method of claim 1, wherein receiving themultipoint touch gesture at the touch interface comprises receiving anunscrunch gesture that includes multiple touches at positions thatdefine a first bounded region encompassing a set of associated subjectitems displayed in the graphical user interface, the unscrunch gesturefurther including spreading of the multiple touches apart to define asecond bounded region, wherein resolving the multipoint touch gesturecomprises recognizing the unscrunch gesture, and wherein at least thegraphical output action comprises spreading the set of associatedsubject items apart in the graphical user interface.
 12. The method ofclaim 1, wherein receiving the multipoint touch gesture at the touchinterface comprises receiving a shove gesture that includes aside-of-the-palm contact on a continuous region of the touch interfacethat encompasses a set of associated subject items at least with regardto a given direction, the shove gesture further including movement ofthe continuous region in the given direction, wherein resolving themultipoint touch gesture comprises recognizing the shove gesture, andwherein at least the graphical output action comprises moving the set ofassociated subject items along the given direction in the graphical userinterface.
 13. The method of claim 1, wherein receiving the multipointtouch gesture at the touch interface comprises receiving a pile fan-outgesture that includes multiple touches at one or more positionsassociated with a pile of subject pile items, the pile fan-out gesturefurther including movement of the multiple touches in a specifieddirection, wherein resolving the multipoint touch gesture comprisesrecognizing the pile fan-out gesture, and wherein at least the graphicaloutput action comprises fanning out the subject pile items of the pilein the graphical user interface.
 14. The method of claim 1, whereinreceiving the multipoint touch gesture at the touch interface comprisesreceiving a pile-to-grid gesture that includes multiple touches atpositions encompassing an associated pile of subject items, thepile-to-grid gesture further including movement of the multiple touchescontinuously outward along respective disparate directions, whereinresolving the multipoint touch gesture comprises recognizing thepile-to-grid gesture, and wherein at least the graphical output actioncomprises ordering the associated subject items individually along agrid in the graphical user interface.
 15. The method of claim 14,wherein the pile-to-grid gesture includes the multiple touches at fourpositions defining a rectangular region encompassing the associated pileof subject items, the pile-to-grid gesture further including movement ofthe multiple touches continuously outward along respective disparatedirections to expand a size of the rectangular region.
 16. The method ofclaim 1, wherein receiving the multipoint touch gesture at the touchinterface comprises receiving a crop gesture that includes a first touchat a position within a region associated with an object displayed in thegraphical user interface, the crop gesture further including movement ofa second touch to define a first crop line with respect to the object,and the crop gesture further including a release of the first touch fromthe position within the region associated with the object, whereinresolving the multipoint touch gesture comprises recognizing the cropgesture, and wherein at least the graphical output action comprisescropping the object along the first crop line in the graphical userinterface.
 17. The method of claim 16, wherein the crop gesture furtherincludes movement of the second touch to define a second crop line withrespect to the object, and wherein at least the graphical output actionfurther comprises cropping the object along the second crop line in thegraphical user interface.
 18. The method of claim 17, wherein the cropgesture further includes movement of the second touch in a specifieddirection from a position associated with the first or second crop linewithout releasing the first touch, and wherein at least the graphicaloutput action further comprises dragging the respective first or secondcrop line along the specified direction.
 19. The method of claim 17,wherein the crop gesture further includes movement of the second touchin a specified direction from a position associated with an intersectionpoint of the first and second crop lines, and wherein at least thegraphical output action further comprises dragging both the first andsecond crop lines from the intersection point along the specifieddirection.
 20. The method of claim 1, wherein the graphical userinterface is part of the touch interface.
 21. The method of claim 1,wherein the multipoint touch gesture comprises one or more successivesingle gestures.
 22. The method of claim 1, wherein the multipoint touchgesture comprises multiple gestures that occur simultaneously.
 23. Acomputer-readable storage medium comprising instructions that, whenexecuted, cause one or more processors to: receive an indication of amultipoint touch gesture that is performed with multiple touches at atouch interface; determine at least one physical simulation effect toassociate with the resolved multipoint touch gesture, wherein themultipoint touch gesture comprises at least one of an unscrunch gesture,a shove gesture, a pile fan-out gesture, a pile-to-grid gesture, and acrop gesture; and output, for display at a graphical user interface, aunified feedback output action, wherein the unified feedback outputaction includes applying the at least one physical simulation effect toat least a graphical output action in the graphical user interface. 24.A computing device comprising: a touch interface to receive a multipointtouch gesture that is performed with multiple touches at the touchinterface; a processor; a physical simulation module implemented by theprocessor to determine at least one physical simulation effectassociated with the multipoint touch gesture, wherein the multipointtouch gesture comprises at least one of an unscrunch gesture, a shovegesture, a pile fan-out gesture, a pile-to-grid gesture, and a cropgesture; and wherein the multipoint input interface is configured tooutput a unified feedback output action in a graphical user interface,wherein the unified feedback action includes applying the at least onephysical simulation effect to at least a graphical output action in thegraphical user interface.